IRVINE, California (AP):Christian Pulisic is the most accomplished and most famous player on his national team at the exact time when his nation is hosting a World Cup.Only a handful of prominent players in the past few decades have faced this confluence of talent and timing. They include a selection of generational greats: Zinedine Zidane for France in 1998, Michael Ballack for Germany in 2006, Neymar for Brazil in 2014.Pulisic’s US teammates recognise the extraordinary burden he is carrying while the Americans prepare for their World Cup opener tonight against Paraguay. From the field to the back row of the stands, everyone is looking to Pulisic for leadership and goals, hoping his full decade of international success with club and country will propel a middling football nation to new heights on home soil.“I can’t even imagine the weight that’s on his shoulders,” teammate Tyler Adams said. “From such a young age, he was the hope of American football.”Pulisic does not shy away from the spotlight that will glare more brightly than ever in the next few weeks. In fact, he repeated Thursday that this challenge is “what I’ve always wanted”.Now 27 years old, Pulisic has enough achievement and enough faith in his teammates to focus on how far the Americans can go, not how far they might fall.“I don’t feel a difference in weight,” Pulisic said at the US training base in Orange County. “I’m not sure. Maybe less. I just feel like there’s so many good players around me. I genuinely don’t feel like I have to do anything on my own. I’m going to give it the best I can. I want to help the team, and they expect a lot out of me but, with the guys I have around me, it makes it a lot easier for me.”Pulisic was already the centre of the US hopes and aspirations when this World Cup was awarded to North America eight years ago, and his status hasn’t changed. A nation that had struggled to produce elite players finally created a star in this slick, creative midfielder from Hershey, Pennsylvania, who has gone on to a decade of European club success.National team progress has been more difficult to come by during Pulisic’s first decade, but he is still considered the most consistently dynamic player in the American program — despite his 18-month goal drought in a US shirt that only ended May 31.“Of course he needs to be an important player for us in the competition,” said coach Mauricio Pochettino, who took over the US team in late 2024. “(But) I think what we’ve learned after a year and a half is that the badge of the national team and the culture with this country is more important than any name, any player or any coach. That is a principal thing that we (believe) and, from there, if you have talent and quality, you can perform on that platform.”Adams, the 27-year-old Bournemouth midfielder, has been right alongside Pulisic for most of this ride.He watched in awe as the 17-year-old Pulisic made his senior US debut in late 2016. Those Americans failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, but Pulisic quickly became a vital component of the group.